(moderate jazz music)
- Oh, yeah.
(moderate jazz music)
- Hey, babe.
- What are you doing here?
I didn't know you were gonna be home so soon.
- I live here.
I swear.
All you ever do is look at that stupid guitar.
You don't even look at me anymore.
(feet stomping)
(upbeat jazz music)
- Every guitar likes to be thought of,
and buying your guitar gifts is one, sure fire way
to let your guitar know that you care,
and keep the relationship fresh,
and there's no better gift to buy your guitar
than a fresh set of strings.
(moderate jazz music)
- Yeah.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Oh, is that for me?
(upbeat jazz music)
- No, it's for my guitar.
And a lot of newer guitar players,
and even people that have been playing awhile,
don't know exactly when to change their guitar strings.
So I have four ways that you can tell
when it's time to change your strings.
Number one,
how do your strings sound?
Number two,
how do they feel?
Three, how do they look,
and four, how do they smell?
Do your guitar strings look nice and shiny,
or do they look kind of rusty and dull?
If so, it's time to change your strings.
How do your strings sound?
Do they sound nice and bright,
or do they sound, maybe, kind of, thuddy and dull?
If they do,
it's time to change your strings, too.
And, you know, how do your strings feel?
If they feel nice and slick and new,
then you're good to go.
If they feel kind of dry and rusty,
it's time to change your strings.
And the last one is kind of extreme,
if your strings smell like rust and tarnish,
man, take your guitar and put some new strings on it.
We all need to feel like we're
being supported in our relationships.
And the best way that you can support your guitar
is to buy a stand.
Don't be that person that just leans your guitar
up against the wall.
(moderate symphony music)
Dude, what the heck?
(moderate symphony music)
I've seen so many guitars eat it over the years,
and all it would have taken to prevent that is a cheap,
and effective, $20 guitar stand.
You could go with something like that,
or you can kind of pamper your guitar
and get a nice walking,
or a more expensive guitar stand like this one.
The important thing is to keep it off the ground,
and keep it in one piece.
Everyone needs to feel like they're being listened to
in a relationship,
and your guitar is no different.
You need to listen to what your guitar is telling you,
particularly, if the guitar is buzzing at you.
You know, that's something that can be really annoying,
and all it takes is to take your guitar
into a professional and have it set up.
That's gonna make your guitar play great.
You're gonna be happy with it.
It's gonna be happy with you,
and it's kind of like a spa treatment for your guitar.
When you're in a long term relationship,
it can be really easy to let things slide
until you end up with the huge problem
you didn't even know existed,
and the fourth way to show your guitar you care,
is to keep it humidified.
And humidification in guitars are like
that long term relationship to where
if you let a problem go without
addressing it for a long time,
you could end up with something really,
serious on your hands, like a cracked thread board,
a cracked bridge, or even a cracked top.
There are a lot of solutions out there
to keep your guitar humidified,
and d'addario and Planet Waves
make a lot of different ones
ranging all the way from very inexpensive,
to a lot more elaborate and expensive.
One of the coolest ones that I've seen is something
called a humiditrac.
It's this little device you put in your guitar case.
It syncs with your phone and it let's you know
what the humidity in your guitar case is at any given time.
So, all of these things are very effective.
It just depends how crazy you want to go with it.
And this is really important if you live in a dry climate.
Good hygiene is always important in a relationship,
and it's no different with your guitar.
So, the fifth way to show your guitar you care,
is to keep it clean and do regular maintenance on it.
Your guitar is not only your tool,
it's your baby,
and keeping it clean will make you proud,
and make your guitar feel loved.
And it doesn't have to be fancy.
It can as simple as, you know,
a clean cotton tee shirt to wipe it off,
or if you have some guitar polish,
and a nice microfiber cloth,
that works great, too.
I like to clean my fretboards maybe twice a year
with quadruple zero grit steel wool.
It's really nice for unfinished fretboards,
you know, non-maple, unfinished fretboards.
It's a really good way to clean your guitar up,
and I like to condition them, too,
with either lemon oil, or cold pressed linseed oil.
And if you've been in a relationship
with your guitar for awhile,
don't be surprised if you need to get your frets
leveled and dressed.
That's just a regular part of maintenance on your guitar
that may be a little bit more expensive,
but it's gonna pay off big time as far as the way
your guitar sounds and feels in the future.
Our last tip to show your guitar you care
is to spend time with it.
If you don't spend time with your guitar,
none of the other things we talked about here
really matter.
It's just like any other relationship.
You're gonna get out of it, what you put into it.
And you know, if you only spend one or two days a week
with your guitar, your relationship is gonna suffer.
But if you know you spend five, six, seven days a week,
you're gonna have a great relationship with your guitar.
That's it for this video.
Make sure to like and subscribe
to the Guitareo YouTube channel,
and below in the comments,
let us know what you do to show your guitar
that you care.
And if you need help starting a relationship
with a guitar,
you can click the link below to get the free
beginner guitar start kit.
(moderate jazz music)